


Onomatopoeia

by sciencing



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Fluff, Graduate School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-10 23:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7864933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sciencing/pseuds/sciencing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abby and Holtz share a lab but have never really spoken before. Both are crushing on each other from afar though. They officially meet in the graduate section of the library at MIT.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crunch

**Author's Note:**

> A HEAP of thanks to my gf @holtzmaunn on tumblr for being my beta!
> 
> Also I have no idea how many chapters I'm going to do lmao
> 
> NB: I do not own these characters
> 
> Update: I made a [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/1254402749/playlist/1cqaKu4NCm3mpKVNNrHVC4) on Spotify that kinda summarise these two.

_CRUNCH!_

Abby whipped her head around and glared at the girl eating an apple in the grad study area. She had her back to Abby, the granny smith in her left. The girl had her feet up on the desk, and looked like she was writing on a notebook in her lap. Abby huffed and turned back to her work.

Several minutes later she felt someone’s hand on her shoulder. Startled, she whacked the person in the face.

“Fuckin’” hissed the girl, “that hurt dude”. She was rubbing her nose when Abby turned to look at her.

“Oh god I’m so sor-” Abby began to reply. She got a good look at the girl’s face. She recognised her now. Jillian Holtzmann, Dr Gorin’s PhD candidate. She’d seen Jillian in the quantum and nuclear lab. Because for some reason MIT, the world class college that it was, couldn’t find different rooms for the two fields.

She’d noticed Jillian so many times before, but she was always too busy to talk to her. Seeing her up this close, and rubbing her nose, made Abby realise how attractive Jillian was. She was still pissed about her eating that goddamn apple so loudly though.

“‘Salright,” Jillian mumbled, “I heard you huff just before,” digging her hand into her pocket “and wanted to know if you wanted an apple.” She held another granny smith out for Abby. She took the apple, confused.

“‘Kay. Thanks for the apple, Jillian.”

“Holtzmann,” Jillian replied.

“What?”

“I-I prefer to be called Holtzmann.”

Abby looked her up and down. That definitely suited her much more than Jillian. Abby was definitely warming up to her.

“Alrighty,” she replied, “thanks for the apple, Holtz.”

“Not a prob!” Holtzmann pat Abby on her shoulder and turned back to her desk.

“Oh,” Holtzmann turned back, “I wanted to give you this as well.” She slipped a small piece of paper into one of the pockets of Abby’s jacket on the back of her chair. Holtz winked at Abby, and then went back to her calculations.

Confused, Abby reached back into the pocket and pulled out the piece of paper.

She had to suppress a giggle at the number.


	2. Crash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abby and Holtz have been hanging out a bit more now. An accident happens in their shared lab and Abby consoles Holtz.

_ CRASH! _

“FUCKING REACTOR FUCK!” Holtzmann screamed from the other side of the lab. Abby pulled out her headphones and ran to Holtzmann.

“Holtz!” she dropped to the ground where Holtzmann was kneeling, “are you okay? Do we need to clear the floor?”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Holtzmann chuckled, “it’s not active right now, just broken.” She sighs and starts to pick up the pieces of the reactor. Abby begins to help Holtz, when she notices Holtz is shaking. She immediately puts her arm around Holtz, rubbing her right arm.

“Hey,” Abby whispers, “it’s okay we’ll get this cleaned up.”

“This was  _ literally _ five weeks’ of work,” Holtzmann says, “god, I’m so fucking behind Abs.” She turns to look at Abby, a tear on her cheek. Abby pulls of Holtz’s goggles and wipes the tear off.

“Oh Holtzy,” she embraces Holtzmann in a bear hug, “I can help you out if you want.”

Holtzmann wraps her arms around Abby, placing her chin on Abby’s right shoulder. Abby calms her down straight away. Her smell, the feel of her hug, it’s all so comforting. 

They sit like this for a few minutes until Holtzmann pulls away. She looks at Abby in the eyes, sniffles and gives Abby a small smile. They get back to picking up the pieces in silence, placing them in a bag, just in case. 

Jillian sits behind her desk, her three monitors casing a blue light onto her face. She doesn’t understand how the reactor broke so easily, considering the fact that she designed it. She tries to concentrate on this problem, trying to move on. But it’s hard. It was five weeks of just the building, no research, just building.

She begins to sob, but Abby’s there to console her straight away. Abby pulls her away from her desk to the communal couch. Abby makes Holtzmann sit down while she grabs some snacks. The only things in the kitchen are Pringles and soda. Shrugging, she takes them over to Holtz, who takes the snacks willingly. 

“I just thought,” Abby mumbled, “some food might help.”

Holtz smiles at Abby and then tussles her hair with Pringle-covered fingers. Abby tries to get the dust out of her hair, but to no avail. She turns to Holtz and then bursts out laughing.

“You’re a nerd Holtzy,” Abby laughs.

“You’re one to talk!” Holtz jabs back, “also, I am  _ so _ taking you up on your offer to help me rebuild my reactor!”

“Of course!” Abby says, “what’s it for anyway? Like, what’s your dissertation on?”

“Development of nuclear powered paranormal containers,” Holtz shrugged, “I like ghosts.”

Abby seriously couldn’t believe her ears.

“No fucking way!” she replied, “mine’s on communication with interdimensional and paranormal phenomena!”

They sit staring at each other, because there’s no way that this is actually happening right now. This girl, this crazy, nuclear engineer who eats loudly in the library is into ghosts as well. 

After a few minutes like this, Holtzmann says, grinning “you called me Holtzy.”

“ _ You _ called me Abs,” Abby points out. 


	3. Knock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Take out in the lab, some dancing, and a progressing relationship.

_ KNOCK KNOCK! _

Her and Abby had stayed late in their shared lab, fully intending on working on their respective projects. That plan lasted until Abby ordered take-out. When the Chinese food arrived at the lab, Jillian grabbed some beers from their mini fridge.

“‘Kay Holtzy here’s your wonton soup,” Abby handed her the container, “ aaand here’s a spoon and some chopsticks.”

Looking at Abby’s gong bao chicken, Holtz says “why don’t you try this?”

“It’d never really appealed to me,” Abby shrugs, “I have to eat a lot and soup never really fills me up.”

“Ho boy Abs,” Holtz says as she picks up a wonton in her spoon, “you are so wrong about this soup. It’s the most filling you can get!”

Reluctantly, Abby eats the wonton and some of the soup. Her eyes light up as the saltiness wash over her taste buds.

“Holy shit!” she exclaims with half a wonton in her mouth, “holy shit Holtzy you’re right!”

“Of course I am!” Holtz laughs, “cheers to your first wonton!” 

They clink their bottles together and take a swill of the beer.

“This shit is terrible Holtz,” Abby says.

“Next time we’ll get some craft beer, how does that sound?”

“For sure,” Abby chuckles, “or some hard cider. Or red wine to be classy.”

“I’m not sure if it’s possible to be that classy in a physics lab.”

“I’m sure we can make it happen!” laughs Abby.

When she finishes laughing, Abby turns to look at Holtz, who meets her eyes. Abby has a little bit of sauce in the corner of her mouth. Without thinking, Holtz wipes the sauce with her thumb. Shocked at the touch, Abby jumps a little, but smiles. Even the smallest of brushes with Holtz was wonderful. 

Breaking the silence, Holtzmann plugs her phone into a set of speakers on her desk. She starts playing  _ Africa _ by Toto. She begins to dance around the lab, gesturing for Abby to join her.

“Come on!” Holtz laughs as she pulls Abby off of the couch.

“Alright!” Abby laughs.

“IT’S GONNA TAKE A LOT TO DRAG ME AWAAAAYY FROM YOOU!” Holtz sings, pulling Abby in close. 

Abby puts her arms over Holtz’s shoulders, while Holtz wraps her arms around Abby’s waist. They sway to the music, laughing and a little tipsy. Abby, summoning up her courage, gives Holtzmann a peck on the cheek.

“Aw is that all you’ve got for me today, Abs?” Holtz teases. As the song comes to an end, Holtz closes the gap between them and kisses Abby. It’s soft, but it means so much to both of them. Abby deepens the kiss, running her fingers through Holtz’s curls, and pulls her in close.

Eventually, they pull apart to look at each other. They both knew this was going to happen eventually, but it still felt so  _ good _ and so  _ right _ . 

“We need to stay back in the lab more often, Holtzy,” Abby says, caressing Holtzmann’s cheek. 

“We should just get our own lab,” Holtzmann replies. 


	4. Creak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After hanging out in the lab after hours, Holtz spends the night at Abby's. This is the morning after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to post this earlier but I've been so stressed out with uni fwjhfewfwegf

_ CREEAAK! _

Abby rolled out of bed and stumbled across the hallway to her bathroom. She splashed her face with some water to wake herself up. 

“Good morning,” Holtz snaked her arms around Abby’s waist and rested her chin on Abby’s shoulder.

“Are you wearing my shirt?” Abby turned her head, “holy shit, Holtz it looks so good on you!’ 

Holtz was wearing Abby’s favourite black and red plaid shirt. Holtz was swimming in it, but god did she look awesome. Abby turned around to face Holtz. Holtz buried her face in Abby’s shoulder, hiding the creeping blush. They stood like this for a few minutes.

“Abby I gotta pee,” Holtz said, breaking the silence.

“Oh my god,” Abby laughed, “go pee then. I’ll go make us some breakfast.”

Abby kissed Holtzmann on the cheek and walked down the hall to her kitchen.

When she got to the kitchen, she put the radio on, and  _ Iris _ by the Goo Goo Dolls was playing. She began to dance around the kitchen as she made some pancakes.

Holtzmann practically bounced down to the hallway. 

“That smells so good!” Holtz said as she sat at the breakfast bar. Abby turned to see Holtz in Abby’s plaid and her own yellow goggles on her head. 

“Did you know,” Holtz said as Abby put some pancakes, “that this is literally the comfiest shirt I have ever worn.”

“That’s also the cheesiest thing I have ever heard you say,” Abby said as she sat next to Holtz, “also, we need to do this way more often.”

“Agreed,” Hotlz mumbled through her food, “this was like the best idea ever. Also I love this song!” 

“You are the cutest nuclear engineer I’ve ever met,” Abby smiled at Holtz.

“Well that wouldn’t be hard,” Holtz teased.

“Still, it’s true,” Abby replied, “did you need to go into the lab today?”

Holtz looked at her, “Abby, I always need to go into the lab.”

“Hoooollttzzz,” Abby whined, pulling Holtz towards her, “you’re like, 5 weeks ahead of your schedule.”

“I have to test my new reactor today.”

“What about we just go in late,” Abby leant in, “we’re grad students who practically live there. We can totally go in late.”

“Hmm,” Holtz bit her bottom lip, “you’re right.” She looked at Abby in the eyes, and smirked. She leant in and kissed Abby.

Abby smiled and kissed her back, pulling Holtz even closer in, their breakfast forgotten. 


	5. Bang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abby and Holtz move into the Higgins Institute.
> 
> Final chapter of Onomatopoeia.

_ BANG! _

“It’s okay! I’m okay!” Abby shouted from the doorway of their new lab. She was carrying two overflowing boxes and had dropped one of them. As she was putting the gadgets that had fallen out of the boxes back in, Holtz walked over.

“This is why I told you to carry one at a time,” Holtz scolded Abby. Abby looked up to see Holtz standing over her, her hands on her hips.

“I totally had it right up until this point in time,” Abby pointed out, “and I technically got both boxes into the lab.”

Holtz rolled her eyes and picked up one of the boxes and carried it to one of the benches. They were only moving Abby’s things in today. Holtz’s things had to be brought in carefully and one at a time because of the reactors. 

Abby had graduated from her PhD. Her final thesis was outstanding and had caught the eye of the director of the Kenneth P. Higgins Institute of Science in New York. She had been offered to head up her own interdisciplinary lab. It was an amazing opportunity. Holtz was just sad that she wouldn’t be able to see Abby as often anymore.

Holtz still had another year to go of her PhD. Although, she had struck up a deal with Dr Gorin so that she could spend two days a week in the lab with Abby. It definitely wasn’t often enough though. Luckily most of her work this year would be focused on the actual write up of her thesis.

Abby brought the other box over and placed it on the bench. She placed her hands on her hips and looked around her new lab, a huge grin on her face. It was everything that she’d ever wanted, except for not being able to work with Holtz every day. 

“You know,” Abby said, “you probably could telecommute more often than you think.”

“Yeah I know,” Holtz replied, “I mean I figure I’ll wait a couple of weeks before trying to bend my commitments to Dr Gorin. I mean, I still need the income.” 

Holtz laughed and looked at Abby. She took Abby’s hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Abby looked back at her girlfriend. She honestly couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have such an amazing partner. 

“Hey Holtzy.”

“Yeah Abs?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I know, as a scientist, that there would be no way in hell Abby would get her own lab that fast after graduation. BUT I can dream.
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


End file.
